i would never support any changes to medicare that would hurt seniors like my mother so anyone in favor of leaving medicare exactly the way it is right now is in favor of bankrupting it. republicans have offered a detailed and credible plan to help save medicare without hurting today's retirees. instead of playing politics with medicare when is the president going to offer his detailed plan to save it? tonight would have been a good time for him to do it. of course we face other challenges as well. we were all heart broken by the recent tragedy in connecticut we most effectively deal with violence in the our country, but undermining the second amendment rights of individuals is not the way to do it. on foreign policy, america is indispensable to liberty. and the world is a better place when america is the strongest nation on earth, but we can't remain powerful if we don't have an economy that can afford it.

in the storm tihort time i've bn washington nothing frustrates me more than what the president laid out tonight. the choices aren't just big government and big business we need an accountable and efficient big government that allows small and new businesses to create middle class jobs, we don't have to raise taxes to avoid the devastating cuts to the military. republicans passed a plan that replaces these cuts with responsible spending reforms, and in order to balance our budget, the choice doesn't have to be either higher taxes or dramatic benefit cuts for those in need. instead we should grow our economy so we can create new taxpayers, not new taxes. and so, our government can afford to help those truly cannot help themselves. and the truth is, every problem can't be solved by the government. many are caused by the moral breakdown in our society. and the answer to these challenges lie primarily in our families and our faiths not our politicians.

despite our differences, i know that both republicans and democrats love america, i pray we can come together and solve our problems because the choices before us could not be more important. if we can get our economy healthy again, our children will be the most prosperous americans ever and if we do not, we will forever be known as the generation responsible for america's decline. at a time when one showdown after another ends in short-term deals that do little or nothing about our real problems, some are starting to believe that our government leaders just can't or won't make the right choices anymore. but our strength has never come from the white house or the capitol, it's always come from our people. a people united by the american idea that if you have a dream and you're willing to work hard, nothing should be impossible. americans have always celebrated and been inspired by those who succeed, but it's the dreams of those who are still trying to make it, that sets our nation apart.

tonight all across this land, parents hold their newborn children in their arms for the first time. many of these parents, for many of these parents life has not gone the way they had planned. maybe they were born into circumstances they found difficult to escape. maybe they've made some mistakes along the way, maybe they're young mothers all along the father of their child long gone, but tonight, when they look into the eyes of their child for the first time, their lives will change forever because in those eyes they will see what my parents saw in me, and what your parents saw in you, they will see all the hopes and dreams they once had for themselves. this dream of a better life for their children, it's the hope of parents everywhere. politicians here and throughout the world have long promised that more government can make those dreams come true, but we americans have always known better, from our earliest days we embraced

economic liberty and because we did, america remains one of the few places on earth where dreams like these even have a chance. each time our nation has faced great challenges what kept us together was our shared hope for a better life. now let that hope bring us together again. to solve the challenges of our time and write the next chapter in the amazing story of the greatest nation man has ever known. thank you for listening. may god bless all of you. may god bless our president. may god continue to bless the united states of america. >> senator marco rubio delivering the republican's response. it's always a tough spot. a tough job in contrast to the grand stage the president has in the house chamber with lawmakers applauding. definitely appeared senator rubio was a bit nervous at times. getting dry mouth, finally taking a drink of water. you feel for this spot.

remember the louisiana governor bobby jindal had tough time delivering the spon response, rubio pushed back on the president's theory of government and talked about his story, a family of immigrants and this is the first time such a high profile speech will be given in two languages by the same person, as i mentioned at the top and it shows a sign of how crucial senator rubio has become in the g.o.p. efforts to draw more hispanic support and possibly rebrand the party. he talked about the efforts to change entitlement reform and tax reform and really get the country moving again. we'll bring back our panel, juan williams, columnist for the hill, nina eastton, syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. >> when reagan was inaugurated he said within ten minutes government isn't the solution, it's the problem. and that was the theme of the

rubio speech and set sort of ideological contrast. obama is a man of government, he represents the party of government of the every issue he raised in his speech had a government solution, a program, a partnership, you know, some new initiative spending essentially and i think what rubio did, he took it on as a sort of if i have s philosophical level and says it's not the way our country works, it comes from the private sector and made that case point by point. i'm not sure it worked as rebuttal. obviously he hadn't heard any of the details, but i think it sets up the argument, the argument that we've had over the four years and the argument i think that will define the next presidential race. big government, small activist government or activist private sector. >> bret: nina. >> in terms of rebranding the republican party i think he's the key party to take on what obama has been able to do so well, which is to say that republicans are just about

rich people. and you saw senator rubio go after that very specifically and to say look, we're not. i'm from a family of immigrants, graduated from college with $100,000 in debt, couldn't have gone without financial aid. and he very much made the case that it is the free enterprise system that's going to uplift the middle class, not government and also in terms of rebranding the republican party, he brings together this coalition that the party is having trouble with, youth, hispanics, but also conservatives. i mean, he's got, even some conservatives have problems with his immigration plan. he is somebody that has a center of trust to conservatives and that's a pretty amazing bridge to have. >> bret: juan? >> you know, i thought that senator rubio did create the contrast that nina and charles are talking about and i really love his story, i mean, that's the story that republicans want to be told to latinos in

this country, 70% of whom you know voted for president obama. they believe that latinos, church going, family oriented, fiscally conservative people should vote republican and marco rubio's story he says today of a kid whose parent came to this country and tried to move away from government that control the economy and they moved to a country to give their son a chance and that's what marco rubio represents. tonight the problem i think with that talk that he just gave is one, his nervousness and i feel for him and a difficult situation as you described the event, but i think when he starts to go into the idea that the president is obsessive and personally, i think that's a little off the tone. from what i understand, he redrafted this speech several times because this is his audition for 2016. and he stands apart time magazine has him as the savior of the republican party, but tonight he looks overwhelmed. >> a lot of people said his rnc speech at the convention

was well delivered and well thought out. tonight, so much of it is-- >> as you said, you know, rnc you've got a crowd that applauds you and behind you to lift you. the president at the podium, you saw of him, and here you are in a room looking for a glass of water. it doesn't work, it works against everybody and i think it's a hard job and i think it's an excellent speech, but a tough spot. >> bret: let's find out what america thinks of the state of the union address, here again, shannon bream with the poll. >> and helping to track things online and let's play a sound bite from the president talking tax reform and tell you what we saw. >> now is our best chance for bipartisan comprehensive tax reform that encourages job creation and helps bring down the deficit. . >> when the president was talking about this, there was a coalescence of the party

there seemed to be agreement it's time to get something done on tax reform and could be good news for the president if he decides to tackle this and trials to move something on capitol hill. another point you mentioned not so much agreement. what he had to say about the sequester the automatic cuts that will kick in if congress doesn't work out a deal. >> these sudden, harsh, ab tr tr arbitrary cuts, they jeopardize medical research. they would certainly slow our recovery and cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs. >> reporter: these cuts have already been delayed once, they are soon upon us again and if congress doesn't work out a deal. when the president talked about the fact they're going to kick in. there was a clear party split and disapproving what the president had to say while democrats had a slightly higher ranking, they split on this.

something we saw all night long the entire speech and folks were voting the president stayed in negative territory if almost every cog f category, in the speech. and what we saw folks didn't like a lot of what he had to say for most of the speech, bret. >> bret: 12.9 million votes. >> reporter: that's a big number tonight and the interesting thing, the place we saw the biggest spike in votes when the president started talking about gun control, it leapt by over a million votes and as soon as he mentioned that topic, it's clearly a hot one. >> bret: okay, shannon, thank you. our special state of the union coverage continuing during "on the record" let's go now to the host, greta van susteren. >> i'm here with kevin mccarthy the g.o.p. whip and being practical. anything that the president said tonight that you're thinking that's not going to happen. >> a few things. he's put the big lofty goals.

he said he'll cut the deficit in half in the first term. he gives the lofty goals and never gives the details of the accountability to get them done. i mean, tax reform, yeah, we want to do tax reform, but it's almost when you listen to what he says, it's his way or no way. >> how about he talked tonight raising, let's say, for example, the minimum wage to $9 an hour, do you think that's going to happen. >> i don't think that's going to happen, i don't think on either side of the aisle. we have an economy that's week and everything he walked about taking more of it. and give it to middle class to get higher up of the it's better for people to keep more in their pockets and create jobs. small business is the at lowest point in years for starting new jobs and if he raises the threshold of small businesses, $9 an hour we go further down and they create more jobs than anybody else in america and that's the challenge that we have. >> senator john mccain has

tweeted he's dispossibilitied he didn't speak about syria tonight and didn't spend a lot of time op international issues, is that something you wanted to hear tonight? >> you know what i really wanted to hear? i wanted to hear how we're both going to work together. what i wanted as kind of a first priority, the first priority of where we currently are today with the 16 trillion dollar deficit, a pox on both houses if you don't pass a budget. i want to see a budget passed and i want to see something that's balanced, balanced. and you've got a senate where how ironic, he's got the ceo of apple sitting up with the first lady and the last time the democrats in the senate passed a budget, the ipad wasn't even introduced yet and now they're on what, their third version, the mini ipad even. you can't get everything he wants to got done without first laying out a plan. >> the american people heard the president,heard the response of senator marco rubio and the tea party response we put on gretawire.com from senator

rand paul and we've got the written copy. go to gret wire to hear it. the president over the 1.2 trillion sequester he signed into law and some republicans are joining him and few people understand that the sequester doesn't cut spending, it just slows the rate of growth. so even with the sequester government will grow over 7 trillion over the next decade. is senator paul right? >> senator rand paul is right. 3 cents out of the dollar to be cut and this is what the president asked. remember we went to the debt ceiling and couldn't get anywhere this is one thing he asked. when he didn't want to do anything about it coming to the future and ignore it. remember in his presidential campaign second debate said this would never happen. it's never done any action to try and cut somewhere else. even though the house, the republicans led last term and passed a bill twice and died in the senate and didn't take action. now that it's coming to the deadline, he wants to ignore, that's kicking the can down the road. you can't do that. we spend more than we bring in. i mean, look, in the first two

months of this new fiscal year, our revenue increased by 10%, an extra 30 billion, but our spending increased 16 billion. and 30 seconds left. and yep, i've got to do that one? >> i thought when he talked about men and women in our military making sure they're able to do and be the very best, yeah, we all agreed. i thought when he talked about looking for the future in investing and research, i'd like to invest in research further. i know that pays off. but you can't make investments if you can't plan where your money is going and if you don't have a budget you can't do anything. >> congressman, thank you very much, toss it back to you, bret. >> bret: thank you. president obama's state of the union address called for spending on infrastructure and manufacturing, and he advocated a boost in the minimum wage and new gun control laws. florida senator marco rubio ap the republican response chided the president for what he called an obsession for tax increases and said his proposals would hurt the middle class.

one thing they could all agree on immigration reform, comprehensive immigration reform, but there are a lot of hurdles to get through on capitol hill, the budget, the sequester before we get to that. all of that's coming in in the come weeks, tune in for special report 6 p.m. eastern on fox news channel and we'll cover every aspect of all the things that are developing, like drinking from a fire hose here in washington. thanks for watching our coverage of the state of the union address, i'm bret baier, good night in washington. we'll see you. my insurance rates e probably gonna double.

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